All posts in Change The World

After a long hiatus on the blog, I’ve decided to resume, well, at least attempt a resumption to writing every now and again.

And without much ado, here, we, go :)

I’m going to share a very simple, wonderful trick with you that will amazingly enhance your days & help you focus on the bigger picture of life – appreciation.

Consider a working day… what do you do the first thing in the morning when you wake up?

If you’re like most of us, you’d probably get a cup of coffee/tea brewing while you quickly scroll through your twitter/facebook/other news source to catch up on “breaking news”/what you missed last night/topic of the day?

Or maybe, jump into the shower, get ready, rush to work? And maybe somewhere in the middle of that, you’d try and squeeze in to check if you got any replies on that status message you posted last night?

Whatever your scenario be, if it fits in remotely anywhere close to the picture I painted above, I’m about to suggest you to do something different.

Give this a shot for the next couple of days. Well, I’d say, try it for at least a week. You’re more than welcomed to go back to your original routine if you don’t feel any different. But I assure you, you’re going to notice something serendipitous in a week’s time.

What am I suggesting?

Well, everyday, after you wake up in the morning, I urge you to spend 10 mins doing nothing!

Yes, you heard that right. I said, NOTHING.

OK fine, not COMPLETELY nothing. Maybe, make a cuppa, and simply do nothing but just sit there on your couch/chair/balcony and have it.

The key is to have no access to any sort of a source to consume any information. No mobile/laptop/newspaper/TV/radio… NOTHING!

You’d probably be like, OK, so what do I do while I’m sipping on my cuppa? Well, that’s exactly my point. Do NOTHING!

Ten minutes is all that is required. Every morning, wake up, get fresh, if that’s your prerogative. But do make a cuppa, and simply spend those ten minutes, doing nothing. If you’re not a coffee/tea drinker, well, have some juice, or water for that matter. But have something. If you sit for ten minutes without having something, you’ll get annoyed within seconds.

Why do it and how is this going to help?

In today’s world, we are all so consumed with events, activities, news and connections. And it’s pretty much an inherent part of life. Most of us cannot even comprehend of life without it.

Amongst all of this, we never do really give any importance whatsoever to reflect on ourselves. To allow our minds to rest, consciously. Think of it like an exercise where you’re powering-on your mind to deal with the rest of the day.

I can assure you, if you do this sincerely for at least even a week, you’ll notice that you’ll gain endurance, clarity, serenity and a strange sense of calmness of acceptance and appreciation of your life – whatever shape or form it currently is in.

There are so many books, citations, mere mentions on how a thought is all what it takes to change your life.

Having read so many of these books in recent past, I’ve always found myself stuck in the simplest question – believing in what you intend to have in your life.

To begin with, there’s are many reasons why you see this around – about thinking ‘happy’ and ‘positive’ thoughts. But how do you achieve that and remain in that frame I mind constantly?

Life will always push and nudge to bring in realities that don’t match up to your intention of success, your sanity.

I’ll share with you a very simple experience.

My current state of life, as I’ve known it, has been quite amazing over the last couple of months. I’ve been quite content ‘overall’.

Now the one thing that I’ve known to flip out and stress massively on is anything got to do with finances.

Having had made some pretty serious financial mistakes a few, infant years ago, I’m still in the middle of correcting my mistakes. 2 days ago I realised of some major payments that were to be made, ones which I had conveniently forgotten recently. In a bit of a crunch recently with the interstate move and the decision to ‘start from scratch’, I woke up this morning with only the thought of ‘how the hell am I gonna pull this off?’

I could not quiet my mind no matter what I tried. I worried endlessly and was constantly pensive in thought.

I consciously tried to remove myself and to visualise better things, to meditate… Everything just felt ‘lame’ at that moment.

Now yesterday, I had messaged a friend of mine, Carolyn , just generally expressing my state of mind. This morning she had replied to the message saying ‘Dev, I want you to actively try to guide your thoughts away from what you don’t have in your life right now, to what you DO have currently on your life.’

I was standing in the balcony, stressing unconsciously when her message arrived.

At first, I scoffed at it. My thoughts – ‘what does she know?’ and ‘how the hell is that going to make any difference to my worry right now?’

But then I noticed another thought. A little voice speaking within saying to me, “Dev, it all begins in the mind. Granted you don’t have a solution right now. But how will stressing on the situation help? Let’s try and make a mental list of all that you DO have in your life right now.”

With that thought I made an attempt to make a mental list of everything I am thankful for. Honestly speaking I could not think of anything at all. I could not break away from the worry I had at hand. Then I heard my own voice trying I command my thoughts… ‘Dev! Think! What are you thankful for in your life right now!’

With that, I felt like I had to just pretend to convince that voice, and maybe make something up so I could shut it up. So I thought, real hard… and as silly as it sounded, I came up with the first thing that I felt I was thankful for in my life right now. It was a stupid reason, and I laughed at myself when I thought of it, but I was thrilled that I did it. So I tried to come up with another one. Every single moment I kept questioning how the hell is this gonna help, but I kept going.

The worry didn’t fade away. But it definitely felt ‘tamed’ after a while.

I started feeling comforted within, an unrealistic comforting surge of faith that I can pull this off. I don’t know how, yet… But just the trust in that faith helped me feel way better than I was feeling!

What happened here?

Let me be very clear. By no means this ‘solved’ the problem at hand.

What this did, is that it put my mind at ease. Filled it with hope… And eventually gave me a perception of strength to be able to perceive solutions which otherwise I would’ve spent in nothing but fruitless worry and pile ups eventually.

Simply put, here are the INSTANT steps you can take to put a stop to gnawing worry and just feel centered:

Now tell yourself ‘I’m going to count the number I times I breathe out 10 times’ – with that, do that!

Now think of the one thing you’d like to do if everything in your life was perfect. It may take a while, but that’s all you have to do, just pick any 1 thing that you would love doing, knowing when everything is perfect as you’d like to have it in your life.

Finally, blank out everything in your head and say thanks for that 2 minute experience to your mind. Be grateful to your mind that it listened to you and gave you those 2 mins you asked for peaceful day dreaming :)

That’s it! There’s nothing more to it.

Yes I know you’ll be like, ‘How the hell is this gonna solve my issue?’ or maybe you read this and scoff at it, saying under your breath, ‘Dev, my problems are far greater than this insignificant thing!’

I urge you to try this for just 3 days. Can you do that? As I said before, you only have to do it for 2 mins. You can do it as many times you can remember to do it in a day if you want.

I’d like to know if you did try it, what were your experiences?

As a closing line, I’d like to dedicate this post to someone I recently “met” in the online world – Carla White, the creator of The Gratitude Journal iPhone App which you can check out at http://www.happytapper.com. Thank you Carla for such a simple, yet an effective application for the world.

It’s great to receive them smack right in the middle of your day. Makes you stop for a few minutes and simply reflect on a few things.

We all get tied up time and again in our daily rut of life as we call it. It is important, no doubt, to follow our passion and/or struggle to achieve and survive. Yet, every now and then we need to simply take at least 5 minutes off at any given time and focus on the existence that is you!

For me, I’ve made a habit of doing that everytime I read one of these messages that pop up in my inbox.

I urge you to create a trigger and follow a pattern in simply trying to achieve those silent, inwardly focussed 5 minutes each day of your life.

If you do end up doing so, do write back and let me know what’s your trigger and how do you find it :)

Here’s today’s message:

My heart is so small
it’s almost invisible.
How can You place such big sorrows in it?

“Look,” He answered,
“your eyes are even smaller,
yet they behold the world.”

Here you’ll find random ramblings, from erratic thoughts that come to my mind in wee hours, to opinions on books, movies, digital and everything that ignites my passion, be it even for a few minutes! More about this blog can be found on my first post: re-jig-a-bit